Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

Isn't that where the Gaunts' old house is?And old Riddle, he lived there too!

Sure enough, these are the ghosts of Voldemort!

"Have you spoken to Dumbledore?" Lockhart asked.

"Of course." Moody said without thinking, "He just left."

"That's good."

Lockhart didn't believe that Dumbledore couldn't figure out what happened behind this. He probably paid more attention to Voldemort than himself, and he probably knew what happened when he heard the name of the bar.

Having said that, there are several unsolved mysteries that do not conform to the logic of the characters' behavior in the HP seven-part series. One of them is why Voldemort still hid the Horcrux there even when he knew that his ancestral home had been exposed.

The old house of the Gaunt family was not cast with too many spells, and at most a Muggle expulsion curse was added, and then Voldemort made his own Horcrux from one of the Deathly Hallows' resurrection stones. , this heart is simply too wide.

If Voldemort did it on purpose, using this resurrection stone as bait to trap and kill Dumbledore7, then he would be too willing to spend a little bit of money.

Lockhart is very clear that Voldemort is the same as himself in this respect, he is an egoist, and he will never exchange his soul for the lives of others." Even if it is only 1/7 of his own soul, even if that People are Dumbledore as well.

Moreover, after Snape "killed" Dumbledore, Voldemort didn't discover that Dumbledore's real cause of death was actually the resurrection stone he had cursed for a long time, otherwise he should have discovered that Snape was a spy.

However, it wasn't until Harry and the others destroyed the Gold Cup that Voldemort discovered that they were searching for his Horcrux.When Voldemort rushed to search for his Horcrux, he found that the resurrection stone and the pendant had also disappeared.

What happened afterwards was taken for granted—in a panic, Voldemort called Nagini back to his side, not daring to let him go away.

This also proves from the side that Voldemort didn't have the idea of ​​using the resurrection stone as a "bait" at all. He was Dumbledore's weakness that he accidentally hit.

As for Snape, I have to say that he is indeed a perfect spy. He didn't reveal it until the end. Maybe Voldemort once suspected him, but until Voldemort was killing him, he still thought that Snape was still a spy. A loyal servant.

Now Voldemort probably doesn't know that three of his Horcruxes have been destroyed. He took the initiative to expose Little Hangleton to the Order of the Phoenix. On the one hand, it is because Ludo Bagman's trajectory can be easily investigated. Will try to cover up.On the other hand, it is estimated that he also wanted to test how alert Dumbledore was to him.

But in any case, it is unlikely that he will continue to leave the resurrection stone in place.

Chapter 340 Seven Mistakes in Countermeasures

Because he was going to send Gemma home, it took Lockhart the next day to find out from Moody the ins and outs of the investigation by the Auror office.

Ludo Bagman has been dismissed by the Ministry of Magic since his gambling was exposed, and has since become penniless. It is even theoretically said that he still owes a large amount of money to the Ministry of Magic, and he probably will not be able to pay this money for the rest of his life.

When a person owes a debt that is almost impossible to repay, some people choose to grit their teeth and try their best to repay it, such as Shi Yuzhu and Luo Yonghao, and those respectable people in the Douban group who are still gritting their teeth to repay their debts.

And more people choose to break the pot, such as the gambling brother, who has nothing to ask for except to find opportunities to get a small loan, or like Ludo Bagman, who drinks all day long to relieve his worries.

Because of the loss of income, Bagman mainly drinks on credit, and he still can't pay back the money, and soon most wizard bars no longer welcome him

So he began to wander around in many Muggle taverns, still buying alcohol on credit, even drinking Overlord wine, and every time he drank, he had to cast a pain-shielding spell on himself, and when he had no money to pay the bill, he would let the Muggle bartender Prepare to beat up.

This spell was originally learned from others when he was a Quidditch batsman in order to save himself from being hit by a Bludger. After retiring, he thought it would never be used again. Thinking of this spell in his hands, it actually gave off a second spring.

As for being called to the police by residents, Bagman usually doesn't have to worry about it, because the British Muggle police basically don't care about such trivial things as a few pounds of drinks.

After all, since the era of Mrs. Thatcher, the British government has been reducing the funding of grassroots civil servants such as the police, and many small towns have canceled police stations because of this.do not

Speaking of regional police stations, even the Metropolitan Police have been selling offices to subsidize costs.

So much so that in the 21st century, the Metropolitan Police Department announced that it would not file a case for "economic disputes" under 50 pounds, and had to allow the police to go out to do part-time jobs to supplement their families, because the wages were really out of reach.

Since the police can't be counted on, the bartender will beat Bagman at best. The plot in "The Police and the Hymn" is really not purely fictional.

Just one day after Bagman was thrown out of the door drunk again by the bartender, a person appeared in front of him.

The man looked at Bagman with interest for a while, gave him a ham sandwich, and asked him about his past.

Bagman didn't remember what he said to that person either, only that he didn't remember anything after he finished eating the food.

"He's under the Imperius Curse," said Moody. "I've found out that the man gave him poison, Polyjuice Potion, and a plan of action to poison the Three Broomsticks' wine. Wait for Luo's attention." After being attracted to Hogsmeade, he used secret passages to sneak into Hogwarts..."

"But that guy probably didn't expect him to succeed, did he?" Lockhart frowned and asked, "Such a rough plan, even if we don't intervene, they won't succeed

Moody was not at a loss when it came to speculating about Voldemort's intentions:

"Who knows, maybe it was just to test our defenses, but we didn't want to startle the enemy, so we pretended that someone was going to assassinate Fudge, but he was actually planning to attack someone from Hogwarts," he said.

Seeing that Moody had already figured it out, Lockhart didn't need to enlighten him anymore: "That is to say, he could have chosen anyone at random to carry out the plan, but he chose Ludo Bagman just to confuse the public."

Moody muttered to himself, "Yeah... It's just that I don't quite know who their target is, Fudge? Not like. Dumbledore? It's impossible. Then there's only..."

"Harry Potter." Lockhart said the answer with him.

And Lockhart knew better than Moody. He knew that the bones of Voldemort's father, Old Riddle, were buried in Little Hangleton.

Since Barty Jr. allowed Ludo Bagman to be exposed, Voldemort must have obtained his father's bones at this time, and the two must have moved to other places.

In other words, Voldemort was only a stone's throw away from being resurrected.

Lockhart decided that after the new year, he must go to No. 12 Grimmauld Place as soon as possible to get rid of the locket that Regulus hid there.

In this way, after Voldemort's resurrection, there are only three of his Horcruxes left: the Resurrection Stone, Nagini, and Harry.

etc!No... I was fooled!

"Has Principal Dumbledore gone to Little Hangleton?" Lockhart asked anxiously.

Seeing Lockhart's anxious expression, Moody seemed a little puzzled: "He's already gone... What, are you worried that he will be killed? Don't worry, even if that bastard is still in his prime, he is not Dumbledore's opponent..."

"No." Lockhart shook his head with a wry smile, "It's not that, I just suddenly remembered... Alas, Voldemort is also proficient in modifying people's memories, we have been tricked again this time

Voldemort could obviously use the power of Little Crouch to modify Bagman's memory, making the Aurors think that Bagman was under the Imperius Curse elsewhere, but he didn't do so, even though he didn't know that Bagman Mann's whereabouts are well investigated, as is the investigation.

But Voldemort's temptation was not that simple, and it wasn't just Huo that he wanted to test.

Gwartz's guards are strong and weak.

If it was only a few ordinary Aurors who went to Little Hangleton to check the situation, then Voldemort could draw a conclusion—that is, the wizarding world has not realized Voldemort's return at all, and he can be bolder next.

But if it was a known member of the Order of the Phoenix, or Dumbledore, who went to check the situation, it could only show that the Order of the Phoenix had realized the seriousness of the problem, and Voldemort and Barty Jr.'s next move would be more secretive.

And now Dumbledore has rushed to Little Hangleton...

"...What a pity, they must have set up an alarm or a trap in Little Hangleton, waiting for Headmaster Dumbledore to come! Although the headmaster is unlikely to encounter an accident, as long as he appears there, Voldemort will probably know immediately We're already on guard against him," concluded Lockhart.

Moody was silent after hearing this--this had not even occurred to him, and it seemed likely to be true.

There are so many tricks. "Moody commented rather unhappily, "It seems that I have to discuss it with the principal... Gilderoy, remember to come to the Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets after the New Year, where our Order of the Phoenix's New Year's duel training will be held. If you are still dissatisfied with your fighting power or fighting skills, you can ask Dumbledore for advice.

Lockhart nodded, "Okay.

Chapter 340 No One Knows How to Poach a Corner Better Than Me

For Lockhart, the biggest variable of this little accident at the Yule Ball was the Resurrection Stone.

This means that Voldemort's plan has changed a lot compared to what Lockhart knew. Apart from confirming that Voldemort still needs his father's bones and Harry's blood, he no longer knows what the other party will do next.

More importantly, Voldemort will definitely take the Resurrection Stone, which is the Deathly Hallows and Horcrux, from his hometown. If he wants to destroy this Horcrux next time, he will have to think of other ways. Dumbledore cannot be expected to destroy it up.

...etc!Lockhart suddenly thought of something.

If it was in the animation, a light bulb must have lit up in Lockhart's head at this time.

Now Voldemort is inconvenient to move, so it must be Little Crouch who takes care of him, and he must not be able to hide the matter of Voldemort getting back the resurrection stone.So can you use this to make an article?

The next few days were uneventful, whether students, professors or Ministry of Magic staff were still immersed in the Christmas atmosphere, as if nothing had happened.

And Lockhart also took this opportunity to give his second work report at the pure blood reception.

He introduced the local situation to these Snake wizards, and used it as a credit for himself: All in all, we have established a firm foothold in the local area and united [-] wizards in Nigeria. Muggle's best line of defense, besides us, whether it's BP, Shell or whatever

Corporations want to extract oil at four times our cost.

Lockhart's report caused applause from the wizards present, especially those from Mr. Farley and Lucius Malfoy.

According to what Lockhart said, almost everyone who invested in the stock could get a lot of money from it. It only took a few months to pay back the capital, and the rest will be pure profits.

These profits are converted into tens of millions of pounds, and these figures will continue to increase in the not-too-distant future.

At this time, the purebloods felt a sense of relief—the family business handed down from their ancestors, they finally did not ruin it, and even had a surplus.

Before that, the sword of Damocles named "Sit and Eat Mountain and Sky" had been hanging over their heads.The lessons learned from the complete decline of the Gunter family are right in front of them. No one wants to become like them, but they have been watching helplessly that their family is also slipping in that direction. Pretending to be ostentatious in front of ordinary wizards: This feeling is really inhumane

But now all these unpleasant pasts have disappeared, and a bright and broad road has appeared in front of them, and all they need to do is to stand firmly on this road and squeeze out other people who also want to go up.

Regardless of how to achieve this new monopoly alliance, there is an urgent problem for the purebloods to solve, and that is whether to convert all profits into gold and pile them into their own treasury.

Lockhart's plan for so long is actually for this moment, how could he let this group of short-sighted people get away with it.

He told these pure-bloods that only a part of the oil company's profits will be used for dividends, and the rest will be invested in the company's expansion, because the opportunity is rare.

"The new president of BP is about to take office. His campaign policy is to divide several oil fields owned by the company into small pieces, then auction them off separately, and then use the money raised in the capital market to annex other oil companies. I plan to use In the name of our company, it is a rare opportunity to take pictures of these oil fields with relatively rich oil and gas reserves.

In addition, the company also needs a sum of money to purchase Muggle equipment-of course, according to the agreement between us and the Prime Minister, we must purchase British products and use the services of British companies. "

The purebloods understand Lockhart's strategy.

These people are wizards and dignitaries, and they can be regarded as the first group of wizards who "see the world with their own eyes". When ordinary wizards were still ignorant of the Muggle world, they had already used it in the villas on their own family territory. Muggle items of all kinds.

So they naturally know that if the Sniff Drilling Company wants to continue to make money, it must be inseparable from the support of the Muggle government.

"So, how much bonus can we get?" A pure blood asked eagerly

It is not afraid to be ridiculed. The money these pure bloods used to buy shares was almost all their wives' dowry books or even their own coffin books, because if they didn't spend so much money, they would not even participate in the investment with "Sacred 28" qualifications.But it is precisely because of this that they are already cash-strapped and need money to get through this embarrassing time.

Although they can understand the logic of "in order to make more money, we have to invest more money", if the result of "playing big fish with a long line" is that they will starve to death the next day, then they may not accept it .

"We tentatively set the dividend as 10% of the profit." Lockhart looked at the report in his hand: "However, because we have hedged through the futures market, the handling fee and commission must be paid to the trader. speculative profit

We have to pay 20% of the capital gains tax; the extracted oil is traded in the UK, so we have to pay the British value-added tax; those of us who are named on the Muggle side have to pay a high personal income tax, which is a progressive tax rate; After being converted into gold, there is still a 6% depreciation of physical gold, plus the handling fees of the Bank of England and Gringotts..."

All the pure-blood wizards let out a groan in unison—no matter who they were

, when paying taxes, his mood always becomes bad.

Finally, some people couldn't bear their temper: "Just tell me, what is the number?"

Lockhart did not continue to tease, but simply reported a number

"...the final amount was 140 million Galleons," he said.

The wizards present were all overjoyed, especially the wizard who asked the question just now. His family’s shareholding ratio is 2%, which means that he can get 2 galleons at a time, enough for him to pay off his debts and renovate the family’s ancestral home. house.

"Ha, I can buy a new wagon!" the guy yelled.

Although the performance of this pure-blooded wizard was slightly out of character, which was not in keeping with his noble status, all the wizards present magnanimously chose to forgive him, because not only him, but almost everyone could hardly contain the joy in their hearts.

For example, Lucius Malfoy, after hearing the dividend figure, he unconsciously crossed his legs on the sofa, and he didn't even notice that his family's snake-headed silver crutch slipped and fell on the ground.

As the largest investor in this oil business, the Malfoy family can enjoy a quarter of the income, which is a dividend of 35 Galleons, which is ten times the total donation they promised to the Slytherin Alumni Association in the next few years more.

Not to mention that this is just the beginning—the 140 million galleons are just a quarterly profit dividend, not even the total annual profit. After they acquire the oil fields of British Petroleum, they can earn more .maybe from next year

In the beginning, the money was more than all his investments combined.

But Malfoy was a rich man anyway, so while the numbers surprised him, he was the first to recover from that ecstasy.

He picked up the cane calmly, and asked Lockhart, "How much tax did we pay?"

Lockhart said without hesitation, "I paid a tax equivalent to 95 Galleons."

The consequences of his words were disastrous - how much the wizards had been happy when they heard 140 million Galleons before, and how annoyed they were when they heard the tax figure.

Even Mr. Farley was surprised: "How much?"

"Paid 95 Galleons in taxes." Lockhart repeated, "And we avoided some taxes, if not more."

There is no way, some of these pure-blood wizards are almost unable to hold on, if they are not in a hurry to turn their profits into gold, in fact, Lockhart can find a way to continue to avoid taxes.

But there is no way, he now needs a sum of money to boost the confidence of wizard investors, so in the case of being eager to cash out, he can only accept blackmail from the British Muggle government.

Travers was a common tax collector in the magic world, and he was the first to be unable to sit still after hearing this number.

"Why do we have to pay so much tax?" he demanded. "This is blackmail! Are we being blackmailed by a bunch of Muggles?"

Not even my dad... Bah, not even the Ministry of Magic dared to tax us pure-blood wizards that much - that's Travers' subtext.

The reason why these purebloods agree to pay taxes to the Muggle government is because they think that if they want to make money from the Muggles, they have to show their sincerity first.

But they did not expect that the price of this "sincerity" would be so high

——Already nearly half of the income has been handed over to the Muggle government.